Total package deal: Rune has an athletic all-around sport, with the flexibility to defend, counterpunch and assault at a excessive degree. He additionally has a powerful serve and an aggressive return, making him a formidable opponent to play towards. | Photo credit score: Getty Images

Sneaky weapon: While Rune is joyful to scrap for his factors on clay, he has beautiful contact and may finish rallies with savvy drop photographs. | Photo credit score: Getty Images

With the injury-enforced absence of Rafael Nadal, the long-reigning King of Clay, the lads’s part of Roland-Garros wears an open look.

The standard storylines involving the contenders embrace Novak Djokovic’s quest for a file twenty third Major title, Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to win a Grand Slam on the purple filth and show that his breakthrough US Open triumph final yr was the ushering in of a brand new daybreak, and Daniil Medvedev’s current “friendship” with clay, a floor that had tormented him till this season.

Bubbling simply beneath these speaking factors is Holger Rune, the primary Dane to enter the ATP high 10. A peer of Alcaraz — the 20-year-olds have been born every week aside in April-May — Rune is a former French Open boys’ singles champion. Three years after his triumph within the juniors, he made the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros on his senior debut in 2022. 

The Djokovic seal of approval

These aren’t the one indicators of his pedigree, particularly on clay. He has the Djokovic seal of approval: the 36-year-old sees a variety of himself within the younger man and there are few greater compliments in tennis. Rune defeated the good Serb within the closing of the Paris Masters final yr and beat him once more on the Italian Open final week. 

Only 5 gamers have successful head-to-head data towards Djokovic over the course of not less than three matches, which makes Rune’s 2-1 lead all of the extra particular.

After his second straight loss to the Dane, Djokovic was moved to say that the long-awaited “shift of generations” had lastly come to males’s tennis, which has been dominated because the mid-2000s by the Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. He additionally talked up Rune’s possibilities on the French Open, placing him in the identical bracket because the Spanish World No. 1: “Alcaraz, Rune... these guys are right there in contention, some of the biggest favourites.”

Asked what makes Rune such a harmful opponent, Djokovic mentioned, “He kind of reminds me of me, the way he plays. Really fit physically, great defence, but also great counter-puncher. He can hurt you from both the forehand and backhand side. Really solid serve. Aggressive returns. He’s very, very fast, very quick. Great anticipation. Very tough to get the ball past him. Just a very talented, dynamic, all-around player on all surfaces.”

If the win over Djokovic in Paris was a breakthrough second for the 6’2” Dane, the one on the Foro Italico felt like affirmation that he belonged among the many elite. 

“If it’s working against Novak, it works against almost anybody,” Rune mentioned of his 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 quarterfinal victory. He additionally spoke of how troublesome it's to transform benefits and end matches towards Djokovic as a result of the Serb begins to swing with much more freedom. “At the end, when Novak goes into this mode, nothing can come at him and he plays really free and aggressive,” mentioned Rune. “When you want to close the match, it’s really difficult.” 

Swinging freely

Rune couldn't win the Italian Open, falling to Medvedev within the closing, however confirmed sufficient over the clay-court season to recommend that he can put collectively a deep run at Roland-Garros. He completed runner-up to Andrey Rublev on the Monte Carlo Masters and efficiently defended his Munich title, increase a 13-3 file (81% win-rate) on the filth this yr.

Rune’s mixture of explosive energy and beautiful contact — he struck an 83 mph forehand return winner off a primary serve and produced savvy drop photographs that stopped lifeless in Rome — supply him rally-ending weapons on clay. But he's not afraid to scrap for his factors both. 

Perhaps most significantly, he is ready to produce his finest towards the perfect on all surfaces. He has a constructive 13-10 file towards gamers ranked within the high 10, which is rare for any individual simply out of his teenagers. He beat 5 top-10 gamers on his technique to the Paris Masters title final yr and has already recorded wins over Djokovic, Medvedev, Ruud and Jannik Sinner this yr.

“I play some of my best tennis when I play the top guys of the world,” Rune mentioned. “Playing juniors, I was number one at the Under-14, 16 and 18 [levels], so I’m used to playing as the one who has to win. It’s obviously different now, playing the big guys on the big stage but I’m excited about it. It’s better to play in a full stadium that’s loud than in front of nobody, so I see it as a positive.”

A foul boy?

Rune’s competitiveness can generally boil over. He has had spats with chair umpires. He additionally appeared to make use of a homophobic slur in a match throughout his teenagers, which he apologised for and claimed was directed at himself not his opponent. He disagrees, nevertheless, with the characterisation of him as a ‘bad boy’, not too long ago saying, “I play with a lot of passion and energy... I don’t know why that should be a bad boy thing, to play with energy on the court. A bad boy thing is to break rackets. If I remember well, I don’t break a racket when I play.”

Rune desires to translate his drive to win into Grand Slam success this yr, persevering with an astonishing rise from World No. 511 to World No. 6 over the past two and a half years.

“Roland-Garros is the main goal of the clay season. I think I had the matches that I needed to be as well-prepared as possible,” he mentioned forward of the yr’s second Major. “I want to win a Grand Slam this year. I hope it can be achieved at the French Open. If not, I hope to make it in the other two Grand Slams.”